20,000 people have stopped smoking with Allen Carr’s unique method in Ireland

Easyway To Stop Smoking celebrates 10 years in Ireland

Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking celebrates 10 years since the Irish clinics first opened their doors in 1998. Since then, Allen Carr’s unique method has helped over 20,000 people to stop smoking in Ireland – for good.

Patricia Keenan, from Dublin, was the very first person to attend Allen Carr’s Irish clinics. She had started smoking when she was 19 years old and by the time she decided to try Easyway, she was smoking 25/30 cigarettes a day.

“I was 36 and I was smoking very heavily. I had tried everything- quitting for lent, sweets to replace cigarettes, I even went to the doctor to get some advice but nothing worked until I went to the clinic,” she explains. “I had stopped when I was pregnant, as the smoke was making me feel sick, but I didn’t manage to stay off them for good – the minute I gave birth I was back on the cigarettes again.”

10 years on, Keenan feels she is a much healthier person and, to this day, she can’t believe how easy it was to give up smoking after all. “I had no cravings. I went to the clinic on a Friday and on Monday going to work I found a packet of cigarettes in my pocked and I just put it in the bin. I never touched a cigarette again,” she says.

“Tasting food again was the most amazing thing – When I was a smoker I would get up and have a cup of coffee and a cigarette. After I stopped, I started tasting my food again but you don’t realize that when you are still smoking – you forget what food tastes like.”

The genius of Allen Carr’s method is that it undoes the brainwashing associated with smoking. Easyway is instantaneous and easy. The therapy lasts for five hours and the clinics offer a three month money back guarantee.

Allen Carr’s world famous method of stopping smoking, The Easyway to Stop Smoking, tackles the issue from an innovative perspective. Rather than hammer home the reasons why smokers should not smoke, the method questions the supposed benefits.

“What I liked about the clinic was the fact that there was no lecture or someone telling you what to do. I was dreading the thought of going and sitting somewhere listening to a lecture and not being allowed to smoke. Instead, I was given the freedom to do what I wanted, I could smoke as much as I liked,” remembers Keenan.

“I thought it was very interesting and found the whole experience very relaxing. Easyway was the only method that worked for me. After I stopped, I gave the number to a few friends and they all have stopped smoking for good too. It is a fantastic method.”

Lorraine Moran had been smoking for 15 years when she decided to book herself and her husband into an Easyway To Stop Smoking clinic in 2006. Her husband had been a smoker for 20 years.

“I really wanted to give up. Even though I loved my cigarettes, I hated being a smoker. Attending the clinic was the best thing we have ever done,” she says. “We are off cigarettes now 18 months and it has just made such a difference in our lives. The dependency has gone and we are much healthier and happier. I cannot believe now that I was a smoker and could never imagine even holding a cigarette now, never mind smoking it.”

Most smokers fear that life without cigarettes will be empty and miserable, that they will not be able to handle stress nor enjoy social occasions. Most of all, the majority fear having to always fight the craving and end up with the ‘grumpy ex-smoker’ syndrome, as Brenda Sweeney, director of the Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking clinics in Ireland, explains.

Moran’s experience fits perfectly this pattern. “I never thought I could go out and have a drink or socialise ever again without a cigarette, but now I’d never give them a second thought. There is life after smoking and a better one at that. When I look at people smoking now, I don’t envy them I just really feel sorry for them,” she says.

“Everyone had a good laugh during the day. I enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of giving up. I was expecting some magic word or picture/image to shock me into giving them up but at the end of the day it was all about re-training your brain.”

32-year old Philip McCabe started smoking when he was 18 years old and last year he decided enough was enough and booked himself into an Allen Carr’s Easyway clinic.

“I had read the book four years ago but went back onto the cigarettes four weeks later. It had been the longest I had ever quit so it made me determined to succeed second time around. I booked the course three months before I was due to attend so I gave myself plenty of time to prepare. I gradually started looking forward to the 25th August like it was a holiday,” he says.

“The big day came and I brought 20 cigarettes with me knowing that this packet was more than likely my last. I was nervous as I did not know what to expect but the person running the course (Susan) was brilliant. She explained everything to us, starting with how we would feel afterwards. I could not wait for 6pm to come, I looked around but everyone else did not look as enthusiastic as I felt.”

When he walked out at the end of the day, McCabe had absolutely no doubt in his mind that he would never smoke again. “Every day since then I have felt great. I don’t cough anymore, I can run faster and for longer distances. It really has changed my life and I would recommend Allen Carr to anyone who smoked and wanted to quit,” he adds.

Allen Carr sadly passed away in 2006 but he left a legacy of more than 70 clinics in 30 different countries – including the Irish clinics, run by ex-smoker Sweeney. His books are best sellers throughout the world, with eight million copies sold to date and Easyway’s unique method has helped over ten million people quit smoking all over the world.

The method also has a substantial list of famous followers who have kicked the habit the Easyway, either reading Allen Carr’s book or attending one of his clinics.

Celebrities who have used the Easyway method include actors like Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sean Bean, Ellen DeGeneres and Julie Christie, and musicians like Johnny Cash, George Harrison, Lisa Stansfield, Britney Spears and voice of an angel Charlotte Church. Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson is also among Allen Carr’s method’s fans.

The Irish Easyway clinics are held in Dublin and Cork and also offer a corporate service. Easyway’s corporate clients include ESB, AXA, Waterford City Council, among many more.

Allen Carr Easyway can be contacted on 1890 379929 and website is www.easyway.ie.

Ends

About Allen Carr’s Easyway

Available in Ireland since 1998, Allen Carr’s Easyway is without doubt the most successful method of helping people to stop smoking in the world. Since 1983 over eight million copies of Allen Carr’s Easyway to stop smoking books have been sold and thousands of smokers have attended clinics of which there are now over 70 worldwide.

In Ireland, companies which have introduced the Easyway Stop Smoking Clinics for their employees include ESB, AXA, Waterford City Council, AGF Irish Life Holdings, Project Management, Aer Rianta and Musgraves Supervalu.

Aviva Health has announced that it will cover the Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking Clinics for its members. Aviva Health is the first and only health insurer to cover smoking clinics in Ireland and will pay over one third of the cost of the treatment.Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking Clinics are held in 5-hour group sessions with a fully qualified therapist. Most people need just one session, but short booster sessions are available within a three month period, free of charge for those that need them. Over 20,000 smokers have attended the Allen Carr clinics throughout Ireland since they started in 1998. The Allen Carr clinics have a world-renowned track record for success in their field and we’re proud to be partnering with them on this development. Through health insurance benefits such as this, we are empowering our members to alter their lifestyle in a positive way.”Discussing the clinics, Brenda Sweeney, Allen Carr Easyway Clinics said: “The Easyway system is effective because it focuses on the reasons why we smoke, rather than on the reasons why we shouldn’t. The physical withdrawal symptoms from nicotine are relatively slight, so Easyway removes all the reasons we give ourselves to continue to smoke. Easyway also removes the fear of stopping, fear that life will not be the same without a cigarette so that by the end of the session you will leave happy to be a non smoker.”
To Visit the Aviva Health website click to www.aviva.ie/online/health